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CNN NEWSROOM

At Least 20 Unaccounted For After Japan Mudslide; Immune Response To Combined Vaccines "Clearly Superior"; New Challenges For Surfside Search And Rescue; War In Afghanistan; Health Officials Warn Of COVID-19 Surge After July 4th Travel; Infections And Deaths Surging In Russia; Doctors Scramble To Contain Growing Outbreaks In Asia; Canada Reflects On Treatment Of Minorities On National Day. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired July 3, 2021 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Breaking news from Japan, where at least 20 people are missing after a devastating mudslide. We'll show you the shocking video.

Plus officials say they will demolish the remaining part of a Florida condominium that collapsed, as new information surfaces about what might have caused the disaster.

And holiday weekend rush: record numbers of Americans are expected to travel even with coronavirus cases on the rise.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, for those watching here in the United States and Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We begin with breaking news right now from Japan, where authorities say at least 20 people are unaccounted for after a massive mudslide tore through a city southwest of Tokyo. Let's bring in Selina Wang, live from Tokyo.

What's the latest?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, we learned two people have been found without vital signs and still 20 people are missing. And this is from the governor of the prefecture where Atami city is located.

The governor is warning more rain is expected and there could be more mudslides, telling residents that the ground is still loose and urging people to evacuate from the dangerous areas.

According to local officials, this devastating mudslide occurred at 10:30 am and the search and rescue has been going on for hours. The video you see there is absolutely devastating, shocking, a huge amount of debris being engulfed in the mudslide. The mudslide knocking down and crushing everything in its path. You

can even see people running for their lives. Residents are devastated. Atami city is a seaside resort area about 60 miles southwest of Tokyo. The area that was hit by the mudslide includes hot springs, residential areas, shopping areas and a famous shrine.

More than 2,800 households are without power, according to local officials this afternoon. Kim, we are in the rainy season and the country is used to annual floods and landslides. Japan's entire Pacific Coast region has been hammered by torrential rain, which is what triggered this mudslide.

And back in 2018, more than 200 people died from catastrophic floods. Last year a government report found that, for the last decade, Japan has experienced nearly 1,500 mudslides every year for the past decade. That marks an increase, however, of almost 50 percent from the previous 10 years. The report said it's because of global warming -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: We'll stay on this story. Selina Wang in Tokyo for us, thank you so much.

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BRUNHUBER: U.S. airports are expecting record travel over the July 4th weekend, just as health officials are expecting an even bigger uptick in COVID cases. That has experts encouraging those travelers who aren't vaccinated to make sure they mask up. CNN's Nick Watt has more from Los Angeles.

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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Boy, was it crowded LAX this morning, holiday travel plus a suspicious package. This weekend expected to set pandemic era travel records, millions on the move.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: We are celebrating as a country at the same time as we recognize the fact that we're in a serious situation for those who have not been vaccinated. And the message is get vaccinated.

WATT (voice-over): Why?

Because of the Delta variant.

BARBARA FERRER, HEALTH DIRECTOR, LOS ANGELES COUNTY: Another wave could become a very real possibility.

WATT (voice-over): There were 506 new cases confirmed in Los Angeles County Thursday, the highest tally in more than two months.

FERRER: We have enough risk and enough unvaccinated people for Delta to pose a threat to our recovery. And masking up now could help prevent a resurgence in transmission. WATT (voice-over): Nationwide, still under half the population is fully vaccinated and the average new daily COVID-19 case count up 10 percent in just the past week.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I thought that we were going the right direction. We were seeing weeks and weeks of declining infections.

WATT (voice-over): The CDC calls the Delta variant hypertransmissible and it's being detected in all 50 states and D.C.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Currently, approximately 1,000 counties in the United States have vaccination coverage of less than 30 percent.

WATT (voice-over): Largely in the Southeast and Midwest. In Arkansas, 99 percent of those killed by COVID-19 since late January were unvaccinated.

WALENSKY: We expect to see increased transmissions in these communities unless we can vaccinate more people now.

WATT (voice-over): Johnson & Johnson just joined Pfizer and Moderna, confirming its vaccine does protect against the Delta variant.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: One of the most sort of pleasantly surprising things is how well these vaccines are holding up against the variant so far, against all of them.

WATT: Here in California in the past two weeks, the percentage of tests coming back positive has about doubled. It's still low but has doubled. And more than one-third of those positive tests are the Delta variant -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

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BRUNHUBER: Global health authorities say looser restrictions, variants and low vaccination coverage are putting Europe at risk for a new wave of the pandemic in August.

New case numbers are already rising in several European nations. And last week, infections rose 10 percent.

But a new German study finds mixing different kinds of vaccines can provide strong protection against the virus. Researchers say a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and an mRNA vaccine, like Pfizer or Moderna, can provide a superior response. For more on this, we're joined by Barbie Nadeau.

There's going to be a huge soccer match for Euro 2020 from a few days ago. An official said the tournament crowds in terms of COVID spread, quote, are "a recipe for disaster." That may be true in terms of the spread. There will be matches there today. The crowd will be a little different there in Italy. Take us through this.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, they're expecting 13,500 people in Rome's Olympic stadium tonight.

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NADEAU: Now this is a big game for England. And some of those tickets were originally sold to people who live in the United Kingdom. The Italian government decided Thursday night they would cancel the tickets. They didn't want the English fans to travel to Italy. They were worried they would come to the stadium and potentially spread the Delta variants or other variants of COVID-19.

So what's happened is they put the tickets back on sale. Now you have U.K. expats, not the usual football crowd or soccer crowd, in attendance tonight. But authorities are concerned with not what's happening inside the stadium because those people have to prove they don't have COVID or vaccinated but in the fan zones.

There are about a dozen across Rome. And those people will be less monitored. The pubs and the streets will be filled. It's a beautiful day. The night will be very lovely, I'm sure. And everyone will be out. And that really is a concern.

Remember, this country was really hit hard during the pandemic. Nobody wants to go back to where we were then. An event like this, with so much people together, it's a recipe for disaster for the (INAUDIBLE) -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, Barbie Nadeau in Rome, thanks so much.

Well, we have new information on the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida. An emergency order was issued Friday to tear down the remaining structure. Officials say the damaged building is unstable and poses a danger to search and rescue crews below. Demolition is expected in the coming weeks.

Now two more victims have been recovered from the rubble, bringing the confirmed death toll to 22; 126 others are still missing.

So as rescue crews dig through tons of broken concrete and debris, there's growing concern that bad weather could soon make a dangerous situation even worse. We get the latest from CNN's Brian Todd in Surfside.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Miami-Dade County mayor announced she signed an emergency order authorizing demolition of the building.

MAYOR DANIELLA LEVINE CAVA (D), MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FL: This was not a decision we made lightly and I know especially how difficult this is for the families who escaped the building and who have lost their homes and their belongings.

The building poses a threat to public health and safety and bringing it down as quickly as possible is critical to protect our community. TODD (voice-over): While the timeline has not been set yet, two more victims were recovered and Thursday night, a heartbreaking discovery, the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami City firefighter found in the rubble. The father was not part of that rescue but he was called over by his fellow rescuers when his daughter's remains were found.

CAVA: Every night since this last Wednesday has been immensely difficult for everybody and particularly the families that have been impacted. But last night was uniquely different. It was truly different and more difficult for our first responders.

TODD (voice-over): New information showing the Champlain South condo board knew of severe concrete deterioration months before the collapse. In an October 2020 letter, an engineering firm hired by the building highlighted the pool structure as a problem area.

They stated, "Full restoration repair work could not be performed in part because it could destabilize the surrounding concrete and because the pool was to remain in service."

Meanwhile, the very similar high-rise on the next block is getting further inspection.

MAYOR CHARLES BURKETT, SURFSIDE, FL: Our building official, in conjunction with our experts, are now getting ready to X-ray columns and do a deep dive, a forensic study, into the structure.

ALLYN KILSHEIMER, STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: So if it is not disturbed.

TODD (voice-over): Structural engineer Allyn Kilsheimer says it's not clear if the standing structure of the Champlain South Tower is in imminent danger of collapse or if there is a risk of heavy slabs or other debris falling. Still the possibility of that and the fact that some of the rubble has shifted is worrisome.

QUESTION: Should it be demolished?

KILSHEIMER: The bottom line is we -- you know, there is the emotional issue and then there's the structural issue, right? OK. Most probably, this portion of the building that you see the debris hanging from, that portion of the building, most probably, should be taken down.

TODD (voice-over): Kilsheimer has been hired by the town of Surfside to investigate this collapse and assess the safety of other nearby buildings. A key safety concern: a large column and a big concrete slab that are hanging from the open decimated facade.

KILSHEIMER: You know, the hanging debris is kind of unstable.

TODD (voice-over): Another big worry, Elsa, the storm that may be a hurricane when it approaches this area and may hit this area.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): This area could see tropical form (sic) -- tropical storm force winds.

KILSHEIMER: The first thing I'd worry about, even if it's 40-mile-an- hour winds, is debris getting blown off of this building.

TODD: Allyn Kilsheimer says it won't be until after they can account for as many people as possible in that rubble.

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TODD: Then, after they demolish the rest of the existing tower right here, then after he and other experts can physically get into the rubble and painstakingly examine all of it, only until after all of that, he says, can we begin to find out the cause of this collapse.

All of that could take months, Kilsheimer says, and he is asking all of us to be patient -- Brian Todd, CNN, Surfside, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: In the wake of the collapse, nearby areas have been reviewing the safety of their high-rise condos. Officials in North Miami Beach are calling for the immediate evacuation and closure of one building deemed unsafe. CNN's Rosa Flores has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The city of North Miami Beach asking all of the residents of the building that you see behind me to evacuate. Officials say that the building is structurally and electrically not safe.

Now here's the backstory: this building was built in 1972. It has more than 150 units and, according to the city, this building had not filed its 40-year recertification. Well, after what happened in Surfside and the collapse there, they say that they've asked all the buildings to resubmit their paperwork.

Well, today, according to the city, the building submitted this report, which is dated January 11th. On the front page, on the first page, it says that the building is considered structurally and electrically not safe. That's why city officials say that they acted very swiftly.

From talking to some of the residents here, I can tell you that they say that they showed up to their homes -- some of them were out and about -- and they found police officers in the building, asking people, urging people to grab what they could from their homes and to exit the building immediately.

They were given two to three hours to pack up and leave. And, of course, right now, it's hurricane season. There is a hurricane in the Atlantic. And so all of these people are homeless right now.

The city says that they're asking the Red Cross to help out. They also have a few community centers that are stepping up to help some of these people get housed. From talking to some of these residents, they tell me they will be staying with family. Others will be going to hotels. Some of them are angry because they say that the building should have

told them sooner, when this report was first issued back in January. Others say that, given what happened in Surfside, they're counting their blessings -- Rosa Flores, CNN, North Miami Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The White House says the full withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan will be soon concluded. But some worry the timing isn't right. We'll have the latest. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The White House says the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan will be completed by the end of August, even as the Taliban make rapid gains across the country.

Friday's departure of American troops from Bagram Air Base was a big step toward that goal. Top U.S. military commanders warn the country could descend into civil war once coalition forces are gone. But President Biden says it will be up to Afghanistan to decide its own future. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more from the White House.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With little fanfare, the U.S. left Afghanistan's largest air base and effectively ended two decades of war.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're on track exactly as to where we expect it to be.

COLLINS (voice-over): Although the official drawdown from Afghanistan isn't over yet, the departure from Bagram Air Base sends a strong signal that U.S. operations are.

COLLINS: What is the latest date that the White House is looking at right now?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, we currently expect it to be completed by the end of August.

COLLINS (voice-over): The sprawling compound was often visited by U.S. leaders and became the center of military power in Afghanistan after being the first to house U.S. forces following the 2001 invasion. The U.S. is handing the air base over to the Afghan government amid new concerns about what they're leaving behind.

QUESTION: Are you worried that the Afghan government might fall?

I mean, we are hearing that the Taliban was taking more and more districts.

BIDEN: Look, we were in that war for 20 years, 20 years. I think they have the capacity to be able to sustain a government.

COLLINS (voice-over): The top American commander in Afghanistan, General Austin Miller, recently warned that civil war is, quote, "certainly a path that can be visualized."

GEN. AUSTIN SCOTT MILLER, COMMANDER, ABSOLUTE SUPPORT: We're starting to create conditions here that won't look good for Afghanistan in the future if there is a push for a military takeover.

COLLINS (voice-over): President Biden growing frustrated when pressed on what could happen.

QUESTION: A follow on, Afghanistan --

BIDEN: I want to talk about happy things, man. I'm not going to answer more questions on Afghanistan. Look, it's the 4th of July.

COLLINS (voice-over): There are also other major concerns, like what happens to thousands of Afghans, who are now targets of retaliation from the Taliban, after working alongside the U.S. troops. The U.S. is reportedly in talks with three central Asian countries to temporarily house those Afghans while they wait for U.S. visas.

PSAKI: They will be relocated to a location outside of Afghanistan. There are a range of options that will happen before we complete our military drawdown by the end of August.

COLLINS: And during that briefing, Jen Psaki defended the president's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, ultimately saying that, when they were doing this review earlier this year, making the decision about how to move forward, they did not sugarcoat it and they did not base it off of best-case scenarios -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And for more on this, let's bring in CNN's Nic Robertson, who joins us from London.

Nic, it was quite striking how eager the president was to avoid talking about Afghanistan there. Maybe symbolic of how the administration just wants to move on. With the gains the Taliban has made, many are questioning whether the Afghan government has a coherent plan for when the American troops do fully leave.

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BRUNHUBER: And some groups are raising militias to protect themselves which must bring a sense of deja vu.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Certainly, this is how Afghan was found by the United States. When they arrived there, following 9/11 attacks going after Al Qaeda and deposing the Taliban from controlling the country, the country had been in a state of internal civil war, with lots of different factions.

There's a real concern among government officials that, while the Afghan national army appears to collapse in some places, the Taliban made gains. Former warlords are standing up their former militias in support of the central government but in support of their own areas as a real concern that, when that happens, that will lead to instability.

And these are what, when the Soviet Union left Afghanistan and a government was left in its place, it was those internal dimensions of that government, different competing elements within it, that pulled it apart.

And that's what analysts would look at Afghanistan right now and say, look, it's not the Taliban that's going to break the current Afghan government apart. But if you start arming former warlords and you get former -- you get noncentralized parties actively engaged in trying to regain power in their own areas, that undermines the central government, the divisions that exist within central government, the ethnic divisions, the political divisions that already exist, those are the things that pull it apart.

You know, these are very real and active concerns at the moment. While the Afghan government does try to sort of get its house back in order as U.S. troops leave, the Taliban have made -- are making these advances in the north more swiftly and earlier than anticipated.

And they haven't been met with sufficient force to hold them back in some areas, it appears. So all of this is a concern. And I think this really speaks to President Biden's concern about getting into detail about talking about Afghanistan.

The withdrawal of U.S. forces was not something -- the negotiations with the Taliban was not something that he initiated. He inherited it from president Trump. And is this looking very messy as he tries to execute it.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you so much for your analysis, Nic Robertson in London. Appreciate it.

Russia now grappling with a dramatic spike in new coronavirus infections and deaths. We'll explain what's behind the surge and what's being done to get things under control.

Plus, Thailand's most popular island is reopening for some international tourists. Why this might be a big gamble for the country next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

Coronavirus cases and deaths are surging in Russia. Just a few minutes ago, the country reported 697 new fatalities, setting a new daily record for the fifth day in a row. Matthew Chance reports from Moscow on the worsening conditions.

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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Russia is ending a week of record coronavirus infections. As the new Delta strain spreads across the country, state media reports the main Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, is less effective against Delta than against other variants.

Infection rates and death figures have been running at record levels for much of the week. Officials say Moscow and St. Petersburg, the country's two biggest cities, are the worst infected with infection rates there up to three times higher than the national figure, according to the head of the Russian health watchdog.

Despite the COVID surge, the Kremlin is rejecting any talk of a new lockdown and instead is urging Russians to vaccinate quickly to protect themselves.

Earlier this week, strict new rules were put in place, making it mandatory for Russians with jobs that involve working with the public, like in restaurants and transport businesses, to get vaccinated by mid-July or face dismissal.

Russians have been hesitant when it comes to vaccinations. According to the Russian president, only about 15 percent of the population have been vaccinated so far -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

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BRUNHUBER: Indonesia's president is appealing for calm as a lockdown goes into effect for Java and Bali. Parts of Jakarta, a city of more than 10 million people, looked nearly empty on Saturday.

The country's health minister says the Delta variant is sparking a dramatic surge in cases and Indonesia is far from alone. Officials throughout the region are scrambling to contain outbreaks.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): It lacks lifesaving ventilators and ICU units. But this small hospital in south Jakarta is packed with coronavirus patients.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): A hospital like ours should not be handling COVID-19 patients. We weren't prepared for this situation.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Across the Indonesian capital, even hospitals better equipped to care for serious cases are feeling the strain of the sheer number of coronavirus patients. The bed occupancy rate in Jakarta's hospitals hit 93 percent this

week. Some facilities are using outdoor tents to treat the sick. As Indonesia struggles with the worst COVID-19 outbreak in Southeast Asia, where the Delta variant is spreading.

On the islands of Bali and Java, where 60 percent of the population lives, new emergency restrictions are in place to try to contain the outbreak. For the next 2.5 weeks, schools will be online only. Grocery stores will have limited hours. And there's no dining in restaurants.

A strict new week-long lockdown is also underway in Bangladesh, where COVID-19 cases are surging, especially in rural areas. Armed personnel have set up checkpoints around Dhaka. The police chief says anyone out without a good reason could be fined or jailed. One man says the measures are too severe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We barely have money to buy food. I want to tell the authorities to, please, loosen the lockdown and let us work by maintaining the required hygiene.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): New daily COVID-19 infections in South Korea are the highest they've been in nearly six months. Authorities in Seoul have delayed relaxing social distancing rules.

[05:35:00]

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): They say 40 percent of the new cases in the past week have been reported among people in their 20s and 30s.

India, where the Delta variant was first identified, just surpassed 400,000 deaths. Half of them have happened in the second wave of the virus though new cases have dropped since their peak in May.

New Delhi recently reopened gyms at half capacity and allowed restaurants to partially open as well.

In Nepal, domestic flight service resumed after a gap of two months.

But with the Delta variant still circulating, along with a slightly changed version called the Delta plus variant, experts say yet another wave of the virus could be coming if countries relax their rules too soon and don't have enough people vaccinated.

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BRUNHUBER: Thailand is battling its worst COVID wave since the start of the pandemic.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Now you can see here, the numbers have been rising steadily for three months. More than 5,500 new cases reported on Thursday alone. But that's not stopping Thailand from trying to revive the tourist industry that pumps billions of into its economy in normal times. Paula Hancocks shows how they're doing it.

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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A big gamble for Thailand's biggest island, Phuket. The prime minister himself rolled out the red carpet for vaccinated international tourists that leads straight to the picturesque sandy beaches without any quarantine restrictions.

In a surreal contrast to the year that's been and to the rest of Thailand that's mostly shut down due to rising cases and three days of record deaths, nearly 400 tourists from the Middle East and Singapore arrived under an experiment called the Phuket Sandbox, ready to hit the beach armed with sunscreen and COVID antibodies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eat some nice Thai food.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you feel now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very happy?

HANCOCKS (voice-over): There's a lot riding on their return and the island has been preparing. More than 80 percent of its population have been vaccinated, with at least one dose; about 65 percent are fully vaccinated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am quietly confident that the industry and the government has done all it can to make this Sandbox scheme both safe and effective.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): An assurance echoed by Thailand's tourism minister.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Looking at the nationwide coronavirus infection rate, we would say we are not ready. But if you focus only on Phuket, we've laid our groundwork for more than three months. We are 100 percent ready.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): The government estimates at least 100,000 tourists will arrive over the next three months, bringing in nearly $300 million in revenues, desperately needed on an island that relies on tourism. Still, some are not convinced that this is the right time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, I'm very confident among the people of Thailand, that, if there's now spread in Thailand.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): But the sun seekers aren't complaining; neither are the local business owners, like Suzanne, who describes the past 1.5 years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Horrid. We didn't expect the last wave to hit us the way it's hit us.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Tourism accounts for 20 percent of Thailand's GDP. But in Phuket, it is 95 percent of its economy, which is why the Thai minister of tourism says it's a calculated risk worth taking. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): In 2019, revenue from both

domestic and international tourism stood at about $95 billion U.S. That shrank to nearly $20 billion in 2020, a huge drop.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): So while it may seem like a parallel universe, for now, Thailand is pinning its hopes on Phuket, while the world watches -- Paula Hancocks, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Some Canada Day celebrations were cancelled this year as the country tries to heal. Canada is having a reckoning with some of the darkest moments of its history, as you'll see.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

PROTESTERS: (INAUDIBLE).

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): A call to partially defund police in the city where George Floyd was killed hits a snag in the courtroom. We'll have that story. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Usually, Canada Day is celebrated with barbecues and fireworks, a lot like Independence Day here in the U.S. But this year, the national holiday was a time for reflection, as prime minister Justin Trudeau put it.

As CNN's Paula Newton explains, the remains of hundreds of children were found again near what used to be a boarding school for indigenous students, bringing Canada's troubled past back to light.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No pride in genocide.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After chants of anger, the statue of a monarch is toppled. Protesters in Winnipeg, Canada, expressing their rage Thursday, as they knocked down effigies of Queen Victoria and also Queen Elizabeth II.

On a day traditionally celebrating Canada's history, recent discoveries are sparking a reckoning with its dark colonial past. Since May, at least 1,000 unmarked graves have been found in two Canadian provinces.

They were discovered at former residential schools, which had mainly been run by the Catholic Church and funded by the government. It was apparent evidence of what the indigenous community had tried to call attention to for so long, what some say was a cultural genocide.

For 165 years and as recently as 1996, tens of thousands of indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and sent to what some described as more like concentration camps than boarding schools.

ERNIE DANIELS, RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SURVIVOR: That's why we're called survivors. We survived the torture. We survived the containment. We survived the punishment, the brainwashing that happened to our kids. That's why so much through our lives, we survived that. That's why we're called survivors.

And some did not survive that, that onslaught.

NEWTON (voice-over): As Canadians grow more aware of a disturbing truth, shock is turning to protest, demanding justice for indigenous peoples. And the country's leadership is joining the public in confronting a painful past.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: We should be, every day, committing ourselves, each and every one of us, to the hard work we need to do to actually rebuild a path forward that reflects the terrible intergenerational trauma and present-day realities of suffering, that are -- that we are, all, collectively responsible for.

NEWTON (voice-over): Well, a long-ignored legacy of abuse comes to the fore. It comes after decades of outcry from the indigenous community, which seemed to fall on deaf ears.

[05:45:00]

BOBBY CAMERON, CHIEF, FEDERATION OF SOVEREIGN INDIGENOUS NATIONS: We had concentration camps here. We had them here in Canada.

We try to put our -- ourselves in the eyes and the bodies of these children, who were now being found in the ground, who have been waiting for decades to have a proper burial and to be honored properly amongst our own protocols, traditions and customs.

And a small First Nations voice said, "They found us. They found us."

NEWTON (voice-over): Paula Newton, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: In the U.S., the city of Minneapolis has hit a legal roadblock in its move to reduce money for its police force. The city decided in December, months after George Floyd was killed by one of its police officers, the decision would have shifted almost $8 million from the police budget into other crime prevention programs.

But a state judge has ruled against the move. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defund.

PROTESTERS: MPD.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They were rallying cries of protests after the death of George Floyd, shifting resources from police elsewhere.

Now in Minneapolis, a court order is reinforcing the opposite, saying the city must raise the number of officers it has and ensure that they fund the police force of at least point 0.0017 employees per resident, which translates to roughly 730 officers by the now order deadline of June 30, 2022, up more than 30 officers from the current total and accelerating an effort already underway by the city.

Eight Minneapolis residents filed the petition and were represented by the center right nonprofit law firm the Upper Midwest Law Center.

DOUG SEATON, PRESIDENT, UPPER MIDWEST LAW CENTER: This is, of course, in Minneapolis where the defunding movement started. If we are successful as this court order indicates we should be, we're hopeful that will inspire people around the country to take similar steps.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The petition was initially filed in August 2020, because these residents said they no longer felt safe amid a rise in violent crime and believed lack of police was the reason.

In January 2019, there were 910 sworn officers according to data released by the city. By May 2021, the number had dropped over 20 percent to under 700. The pandemic, protest and morale playing roles.

Even still strategies over how much to invest in police have been divided at times with calls from the Minneapolis city council and more to dismantle the structure of the department in favor of a more encompassing public safety department.

Multiple attempts have failed but at least one of those proposals is now likely to end up on the November ballot for a vote after a successful review by the city attorney's office.

But not everyone feels that's the right approach amid a five-year high in violent crime, even some community groups.

JIMENEZ: You don't think police should be defunded, they should be reformed.

IAN D. BETHEL, NEW BEGINNINGS BAPTIST MINISTRY: What we're going to do and what we are doing is to make sure we have proper law enforcement in a Black community, in our brown communities.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The mayor of Minneapolis couldn't comment on the new court order but his office said, "His support for recruiting more community-minded officers to uphold his and Chief Arradondo's vision for MPD is reflected in every one of his budget proposals and the mayor will continue working to increase officer staffing levels."

One of his latest public safety proposal says, "The MPD will replenish its ranks by bringing on two more recruit classes by the end of this year, so that the department will have over 700 officers by the end of next year."

But the order pushes that timeline forward.

SEATON: More police is definitely the answer, part of the answer; a requirement for any answer really.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Omar Jimenez, CNN, Minneapolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: They're highly trained and helping in South Florida. Ahead, the dogs playing a crucial role in the condo collapse. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The confirmed death toll from the Florida condo building collapse now stands at 22. As rescue crews urgently search through the debris for possible survivors, a team of specialized dogs is working alongside them. Randi Kaye reports on the unit known as Florida Task Force One.

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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These K-9 search and rescue teams have just finished up a 12-hour shift searching for survivors in the rubble pile where Champlain Towers South once stood. Families are counting on these dogs to help find loved ones. Bohdi, Zoe, Stone, Gunner and the others are all part of Florida Task Force 1. They are built for this sort of delicate work.

PJ PARKER, FLORIDA TASK FORCE 1, BOHDI'S HANDLER: The dogs and the way they move across the rubble, they are very agile and they distribute their weight with four different paws. And they don't hesitate like humans do. So it's much safer for them to move across the rubble. They don't displace rubble, so they won't create further damage to the victim if there's a further collapse.

KAYE (voice-over): And when disaster strikes, their keen sense of smell gives them another great advantage over their human handlers. The team says dogs have as many as 300 million smell receptors in their noses, compared to about 6 million in humans. That sense of smell helps direct search crews where to look saving them precious time on the rubble pile.

FRANK GARCIA, FLORIDA TASK FORCE 1, ZOE'S HANDLER: Their job is not to say X marks the spot. Their job is to say hey, this is where we have to start looking. This is where we start our search and that's where we bring in our tech search guys who will then help to pinpoint -- I know, sweetheart, she's excited, my apologies. They will then work the pinpoint and then after that, the technical rescue guys will then bring the victim out.

KAYE (voice-over): On the pile, there are two types of dogs.

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KAYE (voice-over): Those trained to find people who are still alive and those looking to help recover bodies. Both types of dogs alert their handlers by barking, a lot. We asked them to show us how it is done.

MEGHAN WASHLOW, FLORIDA TASK FORCE 1, GUNNER'S HANDLER: I'm going to release my dog from up here. He's going to go search for Riley.

KAYE (voice-over): A team member Riley Edgar is hiding behind some bushes. Watch how quickly this pup Gunner sniffs him out.

WASHLOW: Dog coming. Search.

Good job, buddy. That's a good boy. When you're ready you can let him win. Yes, bud, good job you found him. This way. Come here. That's a good job.

KAYE (voice-over): The dogs do it for the praise and the toy they get as a reward. They have no idea lives are at stake or that every minute counts.

JOE LONG, FLORIDA TASK FORCE 1, STONE'S HANDLER: Everything we do is worth a toy, so they just think it is a big game. You know, if price is right everything for them.

KAYE (voice-over): The key is teaching the dog to ignore other distractions that may be in the rubble.

WASHLOW: We'll hide different clothes, cat food, high reward items, cat food, meats, stuff like that, to make sure that they not to alert on those but only they're only alerting on people.

KAYE (voice-over): Despite the 12-hour shift, handlers say the dogs never tire of the work. They often have to pull them off the pile and make them rest before their shift starts all over again -- Randi Kaye, CNN, Surfside, Florida.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For our viewers in the United States and Canada, "NEW DAY" is just ahead. For everyone else it's "MARKETPLACE EUROPE."